Texas Motor Speedway

In a race decided by less than the length of a Texas hot chili pepper, JR Motorsports driver Sam Mayer pulled off a last lap pass of veteran Ryan Sieg to claim his first victory of the season Saturday in the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Officially, the margin of victory was .002-second as Mayer’s No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet and Sieg’s No. 39 Ryan Sieg Racing Ford crossed the finish line door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper – the cars so close officials took a brief extra look to formally declare Mayer the winner. It was Mayer’s first win of the year and fifth of his career.

It would have been Sieg’s first win in 342 career starts in the series.

“That’s absolutely unreal,” the 20-year old Mayer said, shaking his head after climbing out of his car. “This team, the amount of adversity we’ve had to fight this entire year so far and to come to a mile-and-a-half that I want to say I’m good at, but it took a lot.

“It took every ounce of me for me to do that today.”

Sieg led 17 of the final 18 laps and raced off to the front on a pair of late race restarts in the closing 20 laps of the 200-lap race on the 1.5-mile Texas high banks. With nine laps remaining Sieg held a 1.2-second advantage over Mayer. But Mayer cut into that margin with each lap, trailing by only .25-second with two laps remaining and then catching Sieg’s car on the back stretch on the final lap. They exchanged the lead briefly, racing door-to-door and then Sieg pulled alongside as they took the checkered flag in a photo finish – the closest ever for an Xfinity Series race at Texas.

“Awe, it sucks,” said an obviously disappointed Sieg, who has two other career runner-up finishes. “We had a really good car. I just got tight, so tried to change my lines, do everything. I saw him coming and I did all I could do and at the end I was just trying to run him up into the wall to try to win the race. We were so close. This sucks.

“I’ve been second before. Too many times. But this is a good thing, means we’re running where we need to be in the top-five.

“Just got to keep fighting, we’re right there, just got to keep it up,” he added. “We’ll have it in Victory Lane here shortly.”

All the late race drama came at the expense of veteran Justin Allgaier, who led a race best 117 laps and swept both stage victories, but ultimately finished third in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. It was disappointing DeJa’Vu for Allgaier, who a year ago led a dominating 133 of the 200 laps only to finish fifth.

A.J. Allmendinger finished fourth in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – a huge rally for the perennial championship contender after he missed his pit stall during the Stage 1 caution, which put him back in the field and forced him to race through the field – again.

Reigning Xfinity Series champion Cole Custer, who started from outside the front row, was a top five car all day and finished fifth in the No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Custer now trails championship leader Chandler Smith – who finished 15th – by 19 points in the standings.

Two-race winner, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill finished sixth, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ryan Truex, JR Motorsports Sammy Smith, polesitter, RCR’s Jesse Love and Anthony Alfredo, who earned his third top-10 of the season in the Our Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet.

With the win Mayer not only course-corrects a rough start to the 2024 season – he suffered DNFs in three of the first four races – but he earns the coveted $100,000 prize from Xfinity as the Dash 4 Cash winning driver.

He’ll compete against Sieg, Allgaier and Allmendinger for the big Dash 4 Cash check again next week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

It was a rally not just for driver but for his JR Motorsports team. The perennial championship favorite has struggled early in the 2024 season – its four talented drivers not earning a top-five until last week at Martinsville. On Saturday, not only did the team – co-owned by Kelley Earnhardt Miller and her brother Dale Earnhardt Jr. – win the race but all four cars finished in the top-13 and three of the four drivers (also Brandon Jones) led laps.

John Hunter Nemechek made the winning pass with seven laps remaining in Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway to punch his ticket to the next round of the series Playoffs and increase his series-best and career-best single season total to seven victories.

His No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led only 38 of the day’s 200 laps, but managed to get around Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman and race off to a 1.005-second victory – his second at the 1.5-mile Texas track.

The winning move came after Kligerman and the day’s most dominant driver, Justin Allgaier dueled side-by-side at the front of the field. Allgaier, who swept both stage victories and led a race best 133 laps, got loose in a door-to-door battle for the race lead with Kligerman and drifted up track following a restart with 10 laps remaining. Kligerman pushed forward but was unable to hold off Nemechek.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sammy Smith finished third followed by Kaulig Racing’s Chandler Smith. Allgaier recovered from the tight racing with Kligerman to finish fifth. The top eight finishing drivers at Texas – also including Cole Custer, Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed – are all Playoff contenders.

“I messed up that restart, but I knew I had to push hard and try to recover right there and man, hats off to this team, Joe Gibbs Racing, it’s been amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish this year and we’re not done yet,’’ said Nemechek, 26.

“We’re preparing for the Round of 8,’’ he continued. “My goal coming into today was to lock ourselves into the next round. Our road courses haven’t been that great for myself. Joe Gibbs as an organization has been really good on road courses. But going into the [Charlotte] ROVAL and hot having to worry about that is definitely a relief.’’

Kligerman, who is racing in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, was hugely disappointed on pit road despite tying a career best runner-up effort (also at Road America this summer) in the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet. His work at Texas brought him to within a single point of the eight drivers who can advance to the next Playoff round following the Oct. 7 Charlotte ROVAL race – the elimination event of this round.

“Had a great run, got to him [Allgaier] and I don’t know how much we got squeezed or didn’t. I thought I could clear him super easily, but I got super loose,’’ he said. “Feels like I got choked, he says he gave a lot of room. I’ll have to look at it.’

“I’m really disappointed right now,’’ Kligerman added. “I could see that one, I could feel it. That was the best restart I’ve ever had in my life, put us in perfect position and had the tire advantage, just choked. This one will hurt, but we’ll go make up for it next weekend.’’

For his part, Allgaier was equally as disappointed and frustrated. He approached Kligerman on pit road after the race to discuss the close racing and fallout from it. He had battled from the back after being squeezed out of the lead pack earlier in the race by Chandler Smith which forced him to take his last set of fresh tires earlier than his competitors. Nemechek and Kligerman were able to take new tires on their last stop during a caution with 20 laps remaining while Allgaier’s tires had 11 laps on them at that point and stayed out – in the lead – during that final caution.

Kligerman and Nemechek made their way back toward Allgaier quickly on their fresh tires with Kligerman pulling forward to try and make the winning move in the final 10 laps.

“At that point, obviously we had a really fast Camaro all day,’’ said Allgaier, who already advanced to the next Playoff round by winning the Playoff opener at Bristol, Tenn. last week.

“We put ourselves in good position. That last caution kind of hurt us because we didn’t have tires, but still thought we’d do a good job.

“Parker, when I went and I talked to him, said I squeezed him. I felt like I left him plenty of room there knowing he’d go to the bottom and he drove it in super, super deep into [turn] three. And he’s been around the sport long enough to know what’s going to happen. Just disappointed. Not only did it mess up battling for second it put us way up in the marbles.”

With a season-high 12 caution periods on Saturday, there was plenty of drama. Only 17 cars in the 38-car field managed to avoid any kind of accident involvement. And by mid-race, half of the 12-driver Playoff field had dealt with some incident.

JR Motorsports’ driver Sam Mayer, a two-time race winner this season and Playoff contender hit the wall on the opening lap doing enough damage to his No. 1 JRM Chevrolet he couldn’t continue and suffered a last place finish (38th).

He started the Texas race ranked 10th only 14 points behind Sheldon Creed in the final cutoff position – but left the Lone Star State ranked last among the Playoff competitors, 34 points back and essentially needing a walk-off victory in the next Playoff race at the Charlotte ROVAL.

“We’re going to have to make something happen,” Mayer said, “our backs are up against the wall.’’

With one race remaining in this opening Playoff round, Nemechek and Allgaier have automatically secured their next round positions as has Custer, who clinched Saturday by virtue on points earned. The regular season champion Hill holds a 44-point edge on the Playoff elimnation line. Chandler Smith and Sammy Smith are 32 and 18 points to the good, respectively. Creed takes a nine-point edge to the good into the Charlotte ROVAL race. Daniel Hemric – who finished 24th Saturday – holds a tenuous single-point edge over Kligerman, who is in the ninth position.

Jeb Burton (-19), Josh Berry (-27) and Mayer (-34) are behind Kligerman – all three involved in incidents at Texas.

Noah Gragson parked his No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet at the finish line, emerged through his car's roof flap and raised his arms in triumph taking in the loud cheers from the Texas Motor Speedway grandstands as he celebrated a historic fourth consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday afternoon in the Andy's Frozen Custard 300.

It was a series best and career-high seventh win on the season for the 24-year old Las Vegas native and automatically reserves his spot in the next round of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. That fourth consecutive victory is significant historically as well - tying one of the longstanding records- set in 1983 - by Sam Ard.

Although it was a tumultuous Playoff opener for many of the championship contenders, Gragson was out front often and ultimately when he needed to be. He didn't win a Stage, but led a race best 85-of-200 laps and held off fellow 2022 Playoff contenders Austin Hill and Ty Gibbs by 1.238-seconds to earn the big trophy - and even more momentum at just the right time of the calendar.

"This No. 9 team, man, they're on fire and all you fans, you keep us motivated,'' Gragson told the cheering grandstands. "We're gonna come back and win more races for you. You guys are awesome and we appreciate you. Thanks for coming out.

"Just this team, I mean the pit crew's done awesome and our car was as fast as Xfinity internet all day and I'm just so thankful for the opportunity"

"Such a relief,'' he continued. "We lost this race back in 2020 and just executed a great race [today],'' he continued.

Eight Playoff cars finished in the Top-10. Stewart-Haas Racing's Riley Herbst was fifth, followed by Playoff driver Josh Berry (JR Motorsports), Sheldon Creed, Playoff drivers Sam Mayer (JR Motorsports) and Ryan Sieg (Ryan Sieg Racing). C.J. McLaughlin was 10th – the first Top-10 of his career.

Compared to his closest competitors, Gragson's day was more a matter of holding court. Several other race contenders and Playoff competitors had busier days of survival and the power of positive thinking.

Both Gibbs, who finished third and regular season champion A.J. Allmendinger, who finished fourth, had to rally to those finishing positions. Gibbs started the race from the rear of the field after failing technical inspection. And the two-time regular season champion Allmendinger? He just had a hectic afternoon overcoming race setbacks.

Two multi-car accidents on mid-race restarts eliminated the winning opportunity for several Playoff drivers and now place them in catch-up mode only one race into the Playoff push.

Eight cars were involved in a crash on Lap 110, including regular season champion Allmendinger, whose No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet – only a few laps removed from the Stage 2 victory - was damaged. Quick repairs returned him to the track and the positions he lost during the pit stop actually proved to be advantageous as he missed the next accident up front after returning to the race.

It was a similar scene on the ensuing restart, only this time the accident started at the front. John Hunter Nemechek, who had led a race best 60 laps – at that point - got loose at the front of the pack, his Toyota colliding with Justin Allgaier's Chevy.

The hard contact sent them both hard into the wall and caused another chain-reaction accident that ended up collecting nine cars in all – including Playoff drivers Brandon Jones, the race polesitter, and 2021 series champion Daniel Hemric (who won Stage 1) in addition to Allgaier.

As with that Playoff trio, It was the end of the day for Nemechek, a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship driver who was driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota at Texas as part of the owner's championship chase.

"The 7 (Allgaier) chose the top behind me, and I haven't seen the replay of it, but the 7 chose the top behind me and started pushing,'' Nemechek said. "The 21 (Austin Hill) made it three-wide on the 9 (Gragson) and I was three-wide at the top being able to be in the race and I think we ended up four-wide at one point which doesn't really work aero-wide in the pack. The resin was up there as well and I don't know. It sucks.

"I thought we were going to have a shot to win the race and repeat from last year. It didn't work out. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds.”

With two more races remaining in this opening Playoff round – at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and the Charlotte ROVAL road course – Gragson's win is an automatic berth into the next Playoff round. Allmendinger and Gibbs are second and third in the standings, 26 and 27 points – respectively behind Allmendinger.

Eight of the 12 Playoff drivers will advance following the ROVAL race.

Riley Herbst (-1), Hemric (-8), Jones (-13) and Jeremy Clements (-29) whose car retired early with an engine issue, now find themselves in the bottom four of the Playoff standings going to Talladega.

After running among the leaders all afternoon, Tyler Reddick took the point himself with a dramatic pass from third place with 31 laps remaining and held off the field to take the checkered flag in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series SRS Distribution 250 at Texas Motor Speedway.

It was Reddick’s 10th career Xfinity Series victory, coming in only his second start of 2022, and his first trophy since his 2019 Xfinity Series championship year.

It marked the first ever win for the new Big Machine Racing team’s No. 48 Chevrolet, with Reddick taking the checkered flag a distant 1.825-seconds ahead of fellow NASCAR Cup Series regular William Byron in an action-packed afternoon.

There were 11 caution periods, the second-most in the series’ history at the 1.5-mile Texas high banks, and tight racing on the ensuing restarts with the two-time Xfinity Series champion Reddick pulling off that impressive pass and ultimately earning his team’s debut victory.

“First off, just a huge opportunity and thank you to Big Machine Racing, it [the car] was just so good," the 26-year-old Californian said, noting he was motivated to take the drive this week to help the Richard Childress Racing-partnered team improve the Xfinity Series program overall.

“Chevrolet was just so good," he added. “Nobody at RCR was really happy with where the cars were at, and I wanted to help and try to make these cars get better and to figure out what we needed to do to get these cars better.

“Well," he smiled. “We figured it out pretty quick, I guess."

Reddick’s victory snapped a three-race winning streak by the JR Motorsports Chevrolets, which combined to lead 118 of the 167 laps on Saturday.

Race runner-up William Byron, driving the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, was making his first Xfinity Series start since claiming the 2017 series championship and came within two-seconds of earning JRM what would have been a historic fourth consecutive win by four different drivers.

The team had three cars finish in the top-five and four finish inside the top-10, including Byron, Sam Mayer in third, Justin Allgaier in fourth and Josh Berry in seventh. Berry led a race best 46 laps, Allgaier was out front for 33 and Byron paced the field for seven laps.

Gragson, who is ranked second in the series driver standings, ended up scored 36th in the 38-car field after first, being collected in a chain reaction accident then secondly damaging the car beyond repair when a tire problem put the car in the wall only five laps afterward.

It was a rough ending to a great start on the weekend. The 23-year-old Las Vegas native earned his first career pole position, led 32 laps, and won Stage 1 – his series best sixth stage victory of the season - twice that of any driver.

“I guess the only positive is we got a Playoff point for the stage win," Gragson said, adding, “Definitely sucks. Good to see the other JRM cars running strong. … hopefully, we can get the company a good finish today.

“Just a bummer. We’ve been doing awesome, just disappointed. We were pretty quick and was just bidding our time.”

Ryan Truex finished sixth in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, scoring his best finish in five Xfinity Series starts this season. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst was eighth – his sixth straight top-10 finish and ninth of the season. Kaulig Racing’s Landon Cassill was 10th; his seventh top-10 of 2022.

All three of the championship leaders faced adversity on Saturday. Current points leader A.J. Allmendinger – the only driver to finish inside the top-10 in every race this season – looked like that streak may have been stopped when his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet had a tire rub racing Allgaier in the closing laps. He was able to maintain his top-10 season run, however, salvaging a ninth-place finish.

Ty Gibbs, who is third in the driver standings, was involved in the initial Gragson multi-car accident on Lap 89. He already had a challenging day, sent to start the race at the rear of the field for an inspection violation.

After the race – and despite the challenges they all three faced – Allmendinger will take a 44-point advantage over Gragson into next week’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Alsco Uniforms 300 (1 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He holds a 52-point edge over Gibbs, who is the defending Charlotte race winner.

John Hunter Nemechek overcame a late race pit penalty to rally through the field and take his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday in the Andy's Frozen Custard 335 at Texas Motor Speedway – the first of three Playoff events that will set the Championship 4 field for the season finale.

Nemechek, whose full-time job is contending for a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship, is the third different driver to win an Xfinity Series race in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota joining Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell – the group combining for 10 wins in 2021 in assorted part-time starts.

Nemechek's victory by 1.316-seconds over Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Hemric marked the third win in four series Playoff races by a non-Playoff driver this season. It was the second Xfinity Series win in the 24-year old Nemechek's career – the other coming at Kansas Speedway in 2018.

A penalty during a pit stop – a crewman coming over the wall too soon – took Nemechek from the lead to 18th position for a restart with 51 laps remaining. Far from crushing his hopes, it motivated Nemechek and his team.vDuring a pit stop on the 10th and final caution period with 28 laps remaining, Nemechek's team called for a two-tire change while the rest of the contenders took four tires. The strategy put him on the front row for the re-start and he navigated his way forward and re-took the lead for good with 20 laps remaining.

"[Spotter] Stevie Reeves and [crew chief] Chris Gayle kept me calm," said Nemechek, who led a race best 92 laps on the afternoon. "I've grown a lot as a driver and been put in positions like that in the truck series as well.

"Man, I can't say enough about this whole team. The 54 has been fast every single week. My goal coming in was to win. I had to win to prove to myself I can do this."

It marked the third runner-up finish for Hemric this season and the 10th of his Xfinity Series career as he races for his first career victory. He was the top Playoff driver on Saturday.

"They just made a really good call to take two [tires] there, obviously," an understandably subdued Hemric said of Nemechek, adding, "Congratulations to those guys. We just weren't quite good enough [to catch him]."

Those two Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas were pretty much the story of the day. NASCAR Xfinity Series championship leader A.J. Allmendinger led the opening 13 laps and then his chief challenger, defending series champion Austin Cindric, took the lead, earning his 10th stage victory.

The JGR Toyotas pushed forward and started racking up the laps led. Nemechek won Stage 2 and primarily exchanged the lead with Hemric for the remainder of the race. The exception was a bold pit move – defending Texas winner Harrison Burton (also a JGR driver) opted not to pit on the last caution and led six laps before Nemechek overtook him and held the lead until the checkered flag.

JR Motorsports driver Noah Gragson finished third rallying from damage early in the race, followed by his teammate Justin Allgaier and Cindric.

Allmendinger was sixth, followed by Justin Haley, Burton, Michael Annett and Brandon Jones. All eight of the Playoff drivers were among the top 10 with Nemechek and Annett the exceptions.

The sixth-place finish for Allmendinger was good enough to keep him atop the championship standings by four points over Cindric. Allgaier is third, 26 points back and Gragson is fourth.

Despite his runner-up effort, Hemric is fifth, two points behind Gragson. Hailey is sixth (-6), Burton (-21) and Jones (-32) round out the Playoff standings.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway for the second race of this Playoff round next Saturday afternoon, the Kansas Lottery 300 (3 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Current NASCAR Cup Series rookie Chase Briscoe is the defending race winner. However, Jones is a two-time Kansas winner, taking back-to-back wins in Fall, 2019, and Spring, 2020.

A handful of late race cautions only made it more dramatic but veteran Kyle Busch still managed to hold off a hard-charging field to claim a record-tying sixth NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race victory at Texas Motor Speedway, just bettering Corey Heim by a mere .112-second to win Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 250.

Maybe while competing in Texas Busch should consider changing his nickname from “Rowdy” to the popular Texas greeting, “Howdy” because the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion has absolutely created an unbelievable mark of excellence competing at the Fort Worth 1.5-miler.

Busch’s sixth win in a Texas Motor Speedway truck race ties him with Todd Bodine for most ever. Busch has won the last four truck races he’s entered at the track. And. ..it is Busch’s 20th overall win at TMS – an unprecedented tally that also includes four NASCAR Cup Series victories and 10 Xfinity Series race wins.

He led a race best 112 of the 167 laps in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Friday and won both stages.

“Great team, everybody here at Spire [Motorsports],” said Busch, who has won a record 66 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races in his career – two this season.

“They definitely kept me honest, I’ll give them that,” said Busch, who compared the robust competition all night to another inspired win when he had to come from 15th place with two laps remaining to win a race.

“Corey [Heim] kept us honest right there,” he continued. “He started to find that top over there and got some momentum over there with three to go. I chattered really bad, so my front just wasn’t working over there. … he made it and got to my rear bumper getting into [turn] three and I just didn’t know which way to go so I ran the middle then to the bottom and then he slipped up top and I guess we had enough of a gap after that.”

Heim’s runner-up finish in the No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota continues his perfect streak of top-10 finishes in every Truck race this season (seven). The margin of victory Friday was the second closest ever at the Texas track.

“It just seemed like a big track position game at the end there,” said the 21-year old Heim. “He’d get really big runs on the straightaways and once you get to the corner it’s really hard to stay behind someone and keep the momentum.

“I did all I could there trying to pick up three [positions] on that last restart but got another caution there unfortunately and just tried to build a run on him, but he’s just too good and does a really good job. Really happy with our run tonight, picked up stage points and finished second.”

Despite Busch’s laps led tally, It was really a highly-competitive race at the front of the field. Christian Eckes led 31 laps and Nick Sanchez led 16. The three drivers – Heim, Eckes and Sanchez – exchanging positions among the top five all evening in pursuit of Busch.

REV Racing’s Sanchez finished third, followed by McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Eckes and former series champion – now a NASCAR Cup Series rookie – Zane Smith, who also competed for McAnally-Hilgemann Friday night.

Daniel Dye, brothers Tayler and Tanner Gray, Stefan Parsons and Ty Majeski rounded out the top-10 finishers.

It was a rough night for early-season championship leader Tyler Ankrum, who was collected in an accident only two laps into the race and finished last, 34th place.

The championship standings changed up with the Texas results and Eckes – the series’ only two-race winner so far in 2024 – takes the lead by two-points over Heim. Majeski, who came into the race leading the points, is now third, 12 points back. Ankrum drops to sixth place, 43 points behind Eckes.

Nick Sanchez led an absolutely dominant 168 of 172 laps in Saturday's SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway, but the 21-year old rookie and reigning NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Zane Smith collided at the front of the field after taking the white flag and Carson Hocevar instead drove through to take his first career victory in double overtime.

The 20-year old Hocevar led only that last overtime lap in the No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet to claim his first win by 1.628-seconds over Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Chase Purdy – career best finishes for both drivers.

After slight contact with Smith racing door-to-door for the win, Sanchez got loose and had to regain control of the truck heading to the white flag. Video replays show that as he steadied his truck, he was hit from behind by Hocevar, whose truck was carrying the momentum as Sanchez was recovering from his slight miscue. The contact from behind was just enough to spin Sanchez back across the track and collect Smith's truck, while Hocevar drove forward to the finish line and waited for official word of the win.

"I didn't mean to get into him, I just meant to give him a push and he got sideways the second I hit him, I apologize to them, I'll take the fall for it, I wrecked a Chevy and I'll go talk to him about it – he deserved to win for sure,'' Hocevar said of the contact with Sanchez.

"But all the times we were the fastest car and I don't win, and this team deserves to win more than anything, I can stop getting the same question asked all the time now,'' said Hocevar, who has four career runner-up finishes.

"We didn't deserve to win today but we were in the right spot at the right time.”

Certainly, Sanchez got plenty of practice in mastering re-starts with six of the 12 cautions coming in the final 40 laps of the race. He drove his No. 2 Rev Racing Chevrolet to the front each time, having to duel side-by-side with Smith late in the race.

"Obviously coming to the last lap, me and the 38 [Zane Smith] were playing an aggressive side-drafting game and I got a little too aggressive on him, got loose, went through the grass and saved it,'' Sanchez said. "Just got hit by the 42 [Hocevar]. I don't know what else to say about that.

"It is what it is, that's racing.

"This is what we've been working hard to do,'' continued Sanchez, who swept both Stage wins. "We don't want to just win, we want to dominate. Today we dominated, but we didn't win so just got to go back and see what I can do better. Try to build on strengths. I guess, the positive is we got stage points, that's something to fall back on. But I want to win, that's my goal.''

Veteran Stewart Friesen finished third with Ty Majeski and Jake Garcia rounding out the top-five; Garcia the highest finishing rookie. Hailie Deegan equaled her career best finish with a sixth-place run. Corey Heim, Ryan Vargas, Jack Wood and Ben Rhodes rounded out the top-10.

Smith was scored 14th and Sanchez was scored 16th. The race leaves Majeski now with a three-point edge over Smith atop the championship standings.

It was a hard-earned, deeply-appreciated victory for Stewart Friesen in Friday night’s SpeedyCash.com 220 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway – the first win for the popular Canadian driver since November 2019.

His 60 laps out front in the No. 52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota more than doubled his year-long total laps led and were enough to land his first win in the last 53 races and to secure his place in the 2022 Playoffs.

Friesen, 38, lined up alongside Toyota driver Christian Eckes for a final overtime re-start and after a close side-by-side battle through the opening two turns, Friesen pulled his Toyota Tundra ahead to clear Eckes exiting onto the backstretch. He was able to hold off Eckes to take a close 0.122-second win on the famed 1.5-mile Texas high banks.

“I made all the mistakes I needed to make in the first two segments," said Friesen, who had only one other top-five finish this season, a third place at Las Vegas in March. “We had an awesome truck.”

“You have no idea the work that has gone into this race team over the past three years to build this up," he continued. “It’s an awesome group. And we’re in the Playoffs.

“Whoa," he yelled with a smile.

As his result indicates, the runner-up Eckes had a strong night, leading a season-high 40 laps – second only to Friesen’s work.

“Just didn’t have lane position," Eckes said. “It is what it is.

“It’s been a rough kind of stretch here for a little bit," he said. “I’m glad to show we can actually be here and win races. We’re more hungry than ever.”

Ryan Preece, who won both Stage 1 and Stage 2, finished third in the No. 17 Team DGR Ford – making quite a remarkable comeback considering his truck suffered damage earlier in the race and had to pit for repairs. The hard work gives Preece four top-10 finishes in as many Truck starts this year and the third-place work is his best of the season.

Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet, finished fourth with ThorSport Racing's Ty Majeski rounding out the top-five in a race that had 34 green flag passes for the lead and 18 lead changes among seven drivers.

John Hunter Nemechek, who won the pole position but had to start at the rear after a penalty for an unapproved adjustment, finished sixth – twice having to drive up through the field. Although he didn’t match his qualifying work with a victory Friday night, his sixth-place showing was good enough to take the Camping World Truck Series driver standings lead for the first time this season. Nemechek is the fourth different Truck Series points leader this season. 

Ben Rhodes, who had led the points for a four-race stretch, finished 27th after his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota was involved in an accident bringing out the final caution period forcing the overtime.

Corey Heim, Chandler Smith, Matt Crafton and former NASCAR Cup Series driver Matt DiBenedetto rounded out the top-10 – the second consecutive and fourth top-10 finish of the season for DiBenedetto.